In my head, there is a room. In this room, there is nothing but a single chair and a door—always locked—and no matter what I do, I can never reach the handle. This room has been with me since I was a child. A place I created to mourn and make sense of young traumas. A childhood trap.

As a creator and even in my life, vulnerability has been something I’ve found myself struggling with lately. I want so desperately to give of myself freely and unabashedly to the world, but putting my guard down to do that can sometimes be overwhelming, if not terrifying. To me, it means opening up my whole self for judgement, for ridicule, for someone else to view me the way I often times have viewed myself—which hasn’t always been the most flattering. Sometimes, I even fear praise. Your added attention just reminds me that I am naked and exposed. Luckily, I am now journeying back to myself. I am learning that vulnerability is not about opening ourselves up to judgement, but to possibility.

Vulnerability invites courage into our lives. It requires surrender and reinforces our faith. It’s found in the moments between closed eyes and open hearts. It lives in the contemplation of ideas that challenge our identities, who we think we are, and what we believe we represent. Vulnerability means stepping outside of your comfortable mental walls, exposed somehow, to the great unknown.

I tattooed the triangular symbol on my breastbone a month later as a daily reminder to self that I can push past my ‘inadequacies’, rise above and go beyond what is asked or required of me and amaze my own natural mind. I wanted to remind myself that I was always choosing in this life, and that despite self-perceived shortcomings, I am always capable of stepping into my true power and higher calling with great ease.

Living a wealthy life is ultimately a practice in seeing and seeking the abundance that exists in every moment and in recognizing the value that each experience adds to your life. The more we continue to recognize that there is joy, purpose, love, lessons, blessings, preparations, richness, etc. in all aspects of our existence, the more that we can, too, begin to see the abundance that surrounds each of us.

Joy is the simplicity of reading while the sound of ocean waves (real or digitally produced) wash ashore. The themes outlined in the following books offer some divine insights into how we might live out radical joy in practical everyday terms.

For me, Feminism is a necessary tool not to liberate women, but to allow them to be what they are and develop themselves without conforming to externally imposed limitations that hold them from progressing and reaching true self-realization.

We’ve created an entire culture and economy around forcing folks to look outside of themselves for answers, leading them further, and further from the truth that lies within. While we can utilize our sisters as resources, we must understand that their journey is their own, and is no direct representation of what ours will look like.

Our mothers are our first experiences of God. Their wombs are the portals of our greatness — our entrance into this dimension and to our true purpose on the Earth. Give thanks. Here at Black Girl In Om, we want to honor the legacy of our founder Lauren Ash’s grandmother Lillian Lazenberry-Martin and her queen mother Patricia Miller. We give thanks for the powerful legacy that has ultimately led to our divine resource for black women’s wellness and healing — Black Girl In Om.

We do not have to like our mothers or have the best relationship with her, but we do need to heal this pain because it will fester and spill into other areas of our lives. Not healing this wound can even cause physical dis-ease in the body, particularly in the brain, the heart center, and the womb space. Healing the bond that exists between us and our mothers, whether she is in our lives or not, deceased or not, allows us to heal a very deep and critical part of ourselves.

The blessing of this hyperconnected era is that we can use the internet and social media to create digital villages and find support through each stage of our spiritual development. In the tradition of Cosmic Blackness, we can take pieces of the ancient ways and weave them into new strategies for empowering and sustaining ourselves.